


Blue Squared

by gladdecease



Series: Schrödinger's Beetle [1]
Category: Blue Beetle (Comics)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Community: picfor1000, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-29
Updated: 2012-02-29
Packaged: 2017-10-31 22:30:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaime visits an amnesiac fan of the Blue Beetle, and ends up finding quite the surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue Squared

"Hey, Jaime," chirps a voice in his ear. "Now a bad time?"

Jaime swerves, and bullets that would've hit his armor go flying through a billboard. He hates the property damage, but better an old sign than the bullets ricocheting the wrong way and hitting a person. He glances back over his shoulder to confirm that yes, the alien hunters are still chasing him. "Sorry, Nadia," he answers, "unless you've got a way to get these hunters off my back?"

"With what, another alien to hunt?" Nadia smacks her brother, hissing that Jaime doesn't need another distraction. Which is true, with bullets still pinging across his shoulders every few seconds, so Jaime keeps quiet and heads out of town. Khaji Da informs him that the hunters have another gun that uses some kind of energy blast instead of bullets. That could be dangerous; he suggests they take out the weapon before it can do any harm. Jaime agrees and picks up speed. The hunters keep pace with Jaime as they pass the most neglected buildings, nothing but highway and desert scrub ahead. Once he's sure they're a safe distance from town, he pulls up short. When they stop, he creates a gun and fires twice: once to knock the gun out of their hands, once to blow it up.

Thankfully, this only causes a small explosion, if tons of smoke. Jaime flies out of the way and waits for the police to take the now unconscious men into custody. Absently hoping nobody got hurt, Jaime remembers why Nadia had called. "So, Nadia, what's up?"

"Hmm?" She sounds distracted; the faint clicking of keys makes it easy to guess how. "Oh, right. So, I built this program to track references to the Blue Beetle, to let us know what people think of you."

An officer on the ground gives Jaime the okay, and he flies off, frowning. "Why don't I remember hearing about this before?"

Hector snorts. "Because it sucks? Ow! What," he whines, "it does! You keep getting alerts for Beatles songs and bug collections."

"It's not perfect," Nadia concedes. "I'm still fine-tuning the program, and there's a lot of irrelevant results, _but_. I got one today that just has to be about you, and I think you're gonna want to check it out."

"Really?"

"It's kind of crazy - they found this guy wandering the desert, no idea who he is or how long he was out there, but he's got dehydration, heatstroke, the works. And according to the guy that found him, the last thing the guy said before he passed out was that the Blue Beetle would save the day."

Huh. It's nice after a day like today to know somebody out there has faith in him. In the back of his head, Khaji Da agrees, but wonders why Jaime has to investigate. "You just want to get home in time for Mama's enchiladas," Jaime chides his armor. Annoyed, Khaji Da starts listing statistics about the superiority of Jaime's mother's cooking, which, between her busy schedule at the hospital and Jaime's as a superhero, he doesn't get to eat nearly enough. Any other time, Jaime would agree, but Nadia was right; something about this guy sparked his interest. If it's nothing, he'll visit the guy, thank him for being a fan, be done in half an hour, tops. And if there's something more to this, there's always another enchilada night.

"Where did you say they'd taken him?"

* * *

It takes a lot of begging to get Jaime in to see the guy. On one hand, yes, the Blue Beetle looks like the only lead on his identity. On the other, he's still not in the best condition, and if he _didn't_ mean the superhero when he said "blue beetle", the sight of Jaime in armor might... At this point the doctor faltered, trying to not offend Jaime while still implying he might literally give the guy a heart attack or something.

"Don't worry," he reassures Khaji Da as they're led to the guy's room. "I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it." Khaji Da grumbles something unkind about the doctor's features, but Jaime ignores it in favor of the door a nurse directs him to. He walks in, whispering, "Hello?" as he shuts the door behind him.

"Wha - ow, my head." Groaning softly, the man stirs, lifts a hand to his temple. An IV line dangles from his arm, feeding in what looks like saline. Hopefully there aren't any strong painkillers in the mix, anyway; Jaime's had enough experiences with drugged up people reacting badly to the armor. Still moving gingerly, the guy turns his head towards Jaime. "Who - oh, _shit_." Catching sight of Jaime, he jerks back and smacks his head against the metal railing surrounding the bed. " _Ow_ , my head. _Again_."

"...okay, not exactly the reaction I was expecting," Jaime manages. It's been awhile since anyone flinched away from him like that; he's reminded of Milagro a few months ago, scared and upset because the armor had taken Jaime away and changed him. "You alright?"

He snorts. "Hey, I'll take a headache and sunburn over the alternative any day."

"What alternative?"

"What do you _mean_ , what alterni..." He pauses, sits up and inspects Jaime properly. "You don't remember me."

Jaime blinks, confused. "Should I?" Khaji Da starts churning away at facial recognition, but no need, Jaime _does_ recognize him. Reddish hair, blue eyes, a large, hawkish nose - they're all features he's seen before, but not on anyone he's met. Not on anyone _alive_. "Oh my god, you're _mmph_!"

"Yes, thank you for recognizing me after all," _holycrapit'sTedKord_ hisses, a hand covering Jaime's mouth. "But I'm also supposed to be dead. So if you could keep quiet about that, I'd appreciate it." Jaime just nods, an inappropriate smile splitting his face in two. Obviously, something serious is going on if Ted doesn't want people to know he's alive, but still. Ted Kord is alive. How cool is that?

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for [picfor1000](http://picfor1000.livejournal.com)'s Challenge #10; my picture is [here](http://www.flickr.com/photos/garris/2305530788/lightbox/).


End file.
